Miljø- og Planlægningsudvalget 2010-11 (1. samling)
MPU Alm.del Bilag 544
Offentligt
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GLU* Resolution to Stop the Shipment of RadioactiveSteam Generators on the Great Lakes & St. LawrenceWHEREASBruce Power is engaged in a multibillion dollar refurbishment projectinvolving several of the eight Bruce nuclear reactors sited on Lake Huron;WHEREASthis refurbishment project involves the removal and replacement ofthousands of corroded and radioactively contaminated tubes and pipes inthe primary cooling circuits of the affected reactors, which will remain on-site as radioactive wastes;
WHEREASthe refurbishment also involves the removal and replacement of 32 hugeradioactive steam generators, each weighing approximately 100 tonnes,each about the size of a school bus, and each containing thousands ofradioactively contaminated pipes which carried primary coolant from thecore of the nuclear reactor;WHEREASthe pipes inside the old steam generators are contaminated withradioactive fission products such as cobalt-60 and cesium-137, withradioactive actinides such as plutonium, americium, and curium, and withradioactive activation products such as tritium (hydrogen-3) and carbon-14;WHEREASthe radioactive contaminants inside the old steam generators includealpha-emitters, beta- emitters and gamma-emitters, some of which havehalf-lives measured in decades, centuries or even millennia;
WHEREASthe decontamination efforts carried out by Bruce Power have notsucceeded in removing all radioactive contamination from these old steamgenerators;
WHEREASBruce Power has signed a contract with the Studsvik company in Swedento receive and dismantle 32 of these old radioactive steam generators fromthe Bruce Nuclear Complex, to recycle as much of the less contaminatedmetal as possible for commercial use as scrap metal (up to 90 percent ofthe total metal in the steam generators), and to return the morecontaminated portions to Bruce Power to be stored as radioactive waste;WHEREASthe recycling of radioactive materials from nuclear reactors as scrap metalfor commercial use should not be countenanced or encouraged;WHEREASBruce Power has announced that it intends to ship the old steamgenerators through the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence River, andacross the Atlantic Ocean to Studsvik in Sweden;WHEREASshipping radioactive waste from nuclear reactors through the Great Lakesis a practice which should be not be allowed because of the potential forlong-lived radioactive contamination;WHEREASthe stigma attached to shipments of radioactive waste from reactors willaffect people's peace of mind and property values along the transportationroute, especially if an accident involving those shipments were to occur;*GLU=Great Lakes United1http://www.glu.org/en
GLU* Resolution to Stop the Shipment of RadioactiveSteam Generators on the Great Lakes & St. LawrenceWHEREASthe shipment of old steam generators through the Great Lakes will set adangerous precedent for other shipments of radioactive reactor wastematerials in future;WHEREASthe Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River system together compriseclose to 20% of the world's surface freshwater; and are a source of drinkingwater for over 40 million people and a $4 billion fisheries; and whichsupport an amazingly diverse and fragile ecosystem;WHEREASthe Great Lakes are currently compromised by radioactive contaminationthrough routine emissions and accidental releases at upwards of 50nuclear sites.; this radioactive burden continues to this day and should notbe compounded and endorsed by radioactive steam generator shipments.
;WHEREASBruce Power�s plan for transporting radioactive steam generators toSweden has never come under public scrutiny with consultation, either bycitizens and local governments along the trucking and shipping routes, orby provincial, state or national governments, or by Native American Indiantribal peoples of the USA, or by the several nations of Aboriginal Peoples inCanada, and the sovereign governments of Aboriginal peoples livingbeside treaty and traditional ancestral waterways of the proposed GreatLakes / St.-Lawrence route, or by international bodies such as theInternational Joint Commission;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the organizations listed below:


(1) are opposed in principle to any shipment through the Great Lakes of

radioactive waste or radioactively contaminated equipment from the

decommissioning, refurbishment, or routine operation of nuclear reactors;

(2) urge the governments of Canada and the U.S.A., as well as the indigenous

and sovereign governments of Native American Indian tribal peoples of the

USA, and the several nations of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, and the

Aboriginal peoples living beside treaty and traditional ancestral waterways

of the proposed Great Lakes / St.-Lawrence router, to insist that the

shipment of old nuclear steam generators through the Great Lakes and the

St. Lawrence River not take place;

(3) urge the governments to recognize used nuclear steam generators as

radioactive waste; they have always been regarded as radioactive waste

and should always be regarded as radioactive waste.

(4) urge that these authorities declare that radioactive wastes and radioactively

contaminated equipment from decommissioned or refurbished nuclear

reactors, or from routine operation of nuclear reactors, shall not be allowed

to be shipped through or trucked alongside the Great Lakes or the St.

Lawrence River.

*GLU=Great Lakes United2http://www.glu.org/en